Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-25

shall certainly mention your house to my
friends. You can count upon my in-
fluence lust IS far as 1t will possibly 60.
have been waiting all the week srd ex-
peCting you to come aud ask this Of me.
I really have not felt quite at home
and taken the interest in public
affairs that 1 should, simply because
knew there was something, | hardly
! knew what, that had not been attended
to- Il YVES undoubtedly, Mrs. O'Flah-
ertY, your boarding house. Now you may
count on me from this time on. Use my
name. wherever you please, with this con
dition, however, thst you will not ,asE
M to become one of your boarders, how
ever much l should be pleased 10 do So
Good day, Mrs. O'Flaherty."
The most interesting specimens OF hu-
mainly are the back numbers that ere to
be ser in some old familiar places. The
card man st the door, "Aunt Clara" al
her notion stand in the corridor, just of
the dome, Old "Aunt Hannah" the apple
woman, and Mrs. and Mr.. Callahan,
with their milk and pie stand in
the basement. Promptly as u O'Clock
come. old Hannah comes tTudg!ng slntC
| the House corridor with her basket OF
red and yellow apples, carrying her lit
tie footstool, on which she seats herself
10 one OF the window easements. Here,
| for an hour she has steady and prosper
Gus trade. Tom r led, Burrows CT Mich
| iesp, John D. Long, William Walter
Phelps, Joe Cannon and scores OF other
well known men on the R publican side
invariably pstrCnize old Hannah
She is never seen to sit in
any other place, and never
passes by the Democratic side OF the
House. For dozen years she hiss sup
ported herself by selling apples. The
card man this session has let his sids
whiGkers grow, and has completely
changed his remarkable resemblance to
Joe Wellborn of Texas. He was often
mistaken fot the Texas Congressman, and
Wellbarn himself has said that he msny
times narrowly escaped being irresisfibiy
drawn into the card stand himself.
Old "Aunt Clara" looks exactly as she
did twenty-five years ago, when she first
came to Washington. She WAS once &
prosperous millinery merchant in New Or
leans, although her history runs farther
back than that. She is French wOm2n,
who, in her youth, it is said, was re-
markedly beautiiul. Oce Ct the
most famous American statesmen con-
ceived passion for her and for many
years she Ell joyed his fullest coofdence
and friendship. The wsr cost her her
little fortune in New Orleans, and She
came to Washington somewhat unsettled
in mind. She used to go into the Senate
gallery and wave small silk fisg, making
wild expressions cf delight whenever q
strong Union speech was made.
Charles Sumner became her friend
and secured for her the privilege CT keep
ing stand in one Of the Senate corridors.
Frem there, 6 few years later, she Was
moved over into the corridor just off the
dome on the House side. where
she will likely be seen as lopg
IS she is able TO get out. She has
made = handsome living from her sale Of
notions, and hss educated her son and
daughter SIS we'll as they would nave been
had they been the children Of a million
Gire. TIE 10Y was sent TO Ysle College
and is now living in Europe. Aunt
Claga's name is not Glars, and probably
there is no one ia Washington who knows
exactly what il is or what her antecedents
were. S1e seems To be as familiar with
the German as with the French language.